eHealth policy

Abstract

The rising of a new technological era has brought within it opportunities and threats the health systems worldwide have to deal with. In such a changed scenario the role of decision-makers is crucial to identify the real and perceived needs of the population and those areas on intervention in which eHealth can help to improve the quality and efficacy of care. Therefore, in-depth analysis of the state of the art both in industrialized and in developing countries is paramount. Many in fact are constraints that mine the designing and implementation of electronic systems for health. Only if policymakers understand the real implication of eHealth and the complexities of the human being, working model could be introduced. Otherwise the systems proposed will follow the same schemes that have produced failures so far. It implies also that the mutated role of the patient had to be known, together with his expectations and needs. Nevertheless, in a globalize world, a policy for eHealth have to consider also those factors that once did not strictly belong to the health context, ecology and a greener policy being some of those. In addition, as health has to be considered a universal value, the role of the developing world is today crucial: what advantages could technology bring to those areas in which the level of industrialization is still nominal? Yet, many are the opportunities that eHealth disclose to these settings, provided that a correct approach is followed, to avoid a waste of time and resources. At least, the future of eHealth has to be considered, so that long-term plans could be developed, so that the future and still unknown challenge for health could be promptly faced.